Expression profiling of protein tyrosine kinases and their ligand activators in leiomyoma uteri.

The aim of this study is to compare the expression patterns of tyrosine kinases and their ligand activators between matched myometrium and leiomyoma tissues. Total RNA extracted from 42 pairs of matched leiomyomal and adjacent myometrial tissues were hybridized to a set of 840 customized oligonucleotide microarrays to compare the expression profiles of 244 selected human genes including 90 tyrosine kinases and 103 ligands. Among the 244 genes surveyed, 38 were found to exhibit differential expression between pairs of myometrium and leiomyoma tissues. Clustering analysis of the expression ratios of these 38 genes from 42 pairs of samples led to the subdivision of fibroid samples into three groups, based in principle on the expression ratios of two peptide ligands, CYR61 and EFNA4. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR measurements of an additional 32 pairs of samples further confirmed the three subgroups. The altered expression of ligand activators between myometrium and leiomyoma suggest that tyrosine kinases regulated by CYR61 and EFNA4 may be exploited as therapeutic targets to develop non-surgical treatments of symptomatic leiomyomas.